asked Her Majesty's Government:

With reference to the Charges for Residues Surveillance (Amendment) Regulations 2007 (SI 2007/2439), why charges for eggs have been raised by 30 per cent and for milk and bovine and soliped carcasses by 9 per cent; and whether this reflects a situation that has been wrong for a number of years. [HL917]

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) consults annually on the proposed adjustments to the charges for surveillance of animal foodstuffs for residues of veterinary medicines and unauthorised substances. The charges seek to recover income from the individual sectors to cover the costs of collecting and analysing the samples and operating the programme in accordance with EU requirements.

The charges to the egg industry for the financial year 2007-08 were raised by 6 per cent—not 30 per cent. This reflects an agreement between the VMD and the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC), whereby the BEIC pays the whole charge for the egg industry and collects the money from its members as it judges appropriate. The resulting savings in administrative overheads from charging one body rather than several hundred individual egg packers means that the increases are kept much lower. However, the option of charging the higher amount is retained in the Statutory Instrument in case the agreement with the BEIC ends and the VMD has to resume charging individual businesses.

In respect of charges in general, the VMD noted in its consultation exercise for the 2004-05 financial year that a number of imbalances between sectors had arisen in previous years, be addressed in the following years. This is being done. The VMD is aware of the difficulties faced by the agriculture industry and makes every effort to continually improve the efficiency of the programme. In the forthcoming review of the legislation which needed to governing the surveillance programme the VMD will take every opportunity to press for the programme to move to a more risk-based approach in taking samples.